Topical Guide 870
Mark Dorset
Imagination
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Preface:
I want, for a while, to vacate the place where I presently dwell and inhabit some other place, as some other self.
For years, I have found these other places and other selves within myself, in my imagination. It is the cheapest place to visit, the nearest getaway, and I go there often, […]
[…] he has come to think of “Peter Leroy” as the name he gives to his imagination, and of “Small’s Island” as the place within his mind where his imagination resides, and every morning, when he takes his place at his computer, he goes there, comes here.
For a few years (1990–1999), the Krafts lived on the east end (or East End) of Long Island, first in East Hampton, then in Sag Harbor. During that time, Leaving Small’s Hotel was published (1998). Chipps & Co. produced a series of readings from Leaving Small’s Hotel for LTV Studios, “a free-speech television and media platform to share all manner of public communication, education, and creative expression within our community and the world at large,” based in East Hampton. The series was produced and directed by Genie Chipps Henderson. Here is the beginning of the introduction to the series.
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Preface:
I saw an island, a small one, and on that island a nameless little boy sitting on a dilapidated dock . . .
The dock might have looked like this:
Or this:
Or this:
See also:
Imagination TG 62; Imagination, Improvisation TG 102; Imagination TG 113, TG 713, TG 862, TG 865Have you missed an episode or two or several?
You can begin reading at the beginning or you can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide. The Substack serialization of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here.
You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed. The Substack podcast reading of Little Follies begins here; Herb ’n’ Lorna begins here; Reservations Recommended begins here; Where Do You Stop? begins here; What a Piece of Work I Am begins here; At Home with the Glynns begins here.
You can listen to “My Mother Takes a Tumble” and “Do Clams Bite?” complete and uninterrupted as audiobooks through YouTube.
You can ensure that you never miss a future issue by getting a free subscription. (You can help support the work by choosing a paid subscription instead.)
At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of Little Follies, Herb ’n’ Lorna, Reservations Recommended, Where Do You Stop?, What a Piece of Work I Am, and At Home with the Glynns.
You’ll find overviews of the entire work in An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy (a pdf document), The Origin Story (here on substack), Between the Lines (a video, here on Substack), and at Encyclopedia.com.